SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Nurses across the Baystate Health system said the hospital is “misaligned” — prioritizing executive pay while cutting the workers who keep patients safe. We’re hearing from nurses at two hospitals who say those cuts are putting you at risk.

In Greenfield, Baystate Franklin looks the same from the outside. But inside, nurses said that 22 departments were hit by layoffs this week ­— among the hardest hit: patient transport. Nurses say after 6:00 p.m., there is now no one left to move patients to x-rays or the lab, “as of yesterday, I would imagine that the already overburdened nurses are going to do that now,” said Marissa Potter, one of the nurses at Baystate Franklin.

The cuts are spreading. In Westfield, an urgent notice sent to the Massachusetts Nurses Association union members at Baystate Noble — confirmed as legitimate by the MNA — shows a “staffing summit” gutted the emergency room.

The 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. shift is losing two nurses. The overnight shift is losing a nurse and a patient care technician. The document warns all shifts will now operate below safe recommended levels — with no fast-track nurse in the ER.

Molly Stevens is a registered nurse in that emergency department. She said Baystate isn’t laying off current staff — they are cutting open positions and telling nurses to keep working understaffed, “They cut us one nurse across the board, 24 hours a day. And then two nurses at the middle of the day — which I sort of see as our peak hours. I just feel like our numbers and wait times are about to really change.”

Back in Greenfield, Potter says the financial priorities driving these cuts are impossible to justify, “It’s a little unclear to me why we’re prioritizing mergers, purchases, executive salaries, bonuses, and we’re cutting out staff that might make 20 to 25 dollars an hour. It’s backwards. It’s misaligned.”

Stevens said Noble’s ER was already stretched thin — and she worries the community will feel it, "It is going to be more challenging to see patients. And it just feels terrible to make those people wait for hours and hours in the waiting room. But with what Baystate is trying to implement in our department — we’re not going to have another choice."

Nurses at Franklin voted 98 percent to reject their latest contract. They said they aren’t just fighting for a paycheck — they are fighting for the support staff that allows them to stay at your bedside.

We reached out to Baystate Health multiple times for comment on the staffing cuts and the broader layoffs across the system including tips we’ve received about Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, we are still waiting for a response. The MNA told Us they are continuing to push leadership to reverse the ER cuts — before wait times grow even longer.

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